Knowledge Library

Why is the Customer Taken for Granted?

I notice more and more that the Customer is taken for granted or allotted a by the way mention in new business strategies. Forbes and many others have written about this and bemoaned the fact, and warned companies not to ignore the customer.

Just as an illustration, read Paul Mandevilles brilliant article on Davids vs. Goliath: Five Ways Retail Marketers Can Stay Relevant in the Age of Amazon where Paul suggests that you need to Clean up customer data, Identify missed opportunities, Take chances, Embrace Beacons, Look for Smart Partnerships.

Great ideas! But where is the real focus on the Customer, about doing the little extras for him, understand what he considers value and for creating value for him. Thats where you should and could beat Amazon, not just by being a process follower. Why doesnt the customer figure in any new strategy?

Do we think the focus on the Customer cannot give us great returns and dividends? Why is the Customer taken for granted? Is our answer, well, all this is for the Customer. And I ask, are you sure all this is not for the company?

Whats your take?

What can you do?

Measure Customer Value Added, the Value of what you add to a Customer divided by the value your competition adds

Use this to build a Customer strategy

Put the Customer in Centre

Make the attitudes of your employees customer centric. To do this you should set up Customer Centric circles

Make the Customers convenience more important than the companys convenience

Then you can do all the things necessary for your project.

Would love your comments and help. We are happy to help others in education and executive education on courses in Value Creation.

Customer Value Foundation (CVF) helps companies to Create Value and profit by Creating Value for the Customers, employee and for each person working with the companies. Total Customer Value Management (Total CVM) transforms the entire company to focus on Creating Value for the Customer by aligning each person's role in Creating Customer Value and getting shareholder wealth and Value.

The Quality Revolution was meant to be customer focused, instead became process centric and one of record keeping. Nonetheless, Total Customer Value Management can learn from the Quality movement. There is much to learn.

Here is an excellent review on Gautam Mahajan's book on Value Creation written by Colin Shaw, founder and CEO of Beyond Philosophy. Colin is an international author of five bestselling books and an engaging keynote speaker..

Customers tend to buy or use those products or services that they perceive create greater value for them than competitive offers. It is essential for executives and leaders to create higher value for their Customers than competition can.

I recently gave a talk to ISSIP (pronounced IZip and stands for International Society of Service Innovation Professionals) on Service Value Creation. Jim Spohrer of IBM asked me how we get the service culture mind-set inculcated.